――The first thing that came to my mind was what was going to happen to the role of the vocalist.
I: Ah, that, from the start I figured it’d be me. No trouble there. I think Hide thought the same too. Thus far, we’ve had a powerful frontman. When I wrote music, lyrics, and did the guitar arrangements, I decided on the parts I’d play. Essentially I did whatever I wanted, but since I’ll be singing things won’t be like they were before. But therein also lies the opportunity to turn that into an advantage where I can come up with new arrangements.
――And for this album, I think you had no choice but to be specific with the theme.
I: Well, I suppose.
――If you asked me, I’d say it was Sakurai Atsushi’s absence. And your thoughts to the fans. I noticed that these [themes] were reflected in the lyrics.
I: It’s certainly there, and I think it comes through. But I didn’t have in mind that specific intention to compose lyrics and music with such a theme. It just naturally turned out like that.
――Unconsciously.
I: Yeah. But there are 17 tracks this time, right? With three instrumental tracks. This was a conscious decision. Besides, I’ve always said I wanted to have a 2-disc release.
――Ah, I see.
I: From the very beginning, I composed a whole bunch of songs and said I wanted to make a 2-disc album. I kept making noise about it to the very end (lol), but it just wasn’t going to happen no matter what. In the end, I could only say, “Fine. We’ll make it one disc only but we aren’t changing the number of tracks!” (Lol)
――Hahahahahaha. Why were you so insistent on the number of tracks?
I: I wanted to increase it; the number of BUCK-TICK songs done by the four of us. That’s all.
――Ahh…… I see.
I: This is for the future. There are surely songs that we won’t ever be able to perform again, so I wanted to increase our options. How our concerts will look like, that’s yet to be decided though.
――Speaking of which, there were songs from the year before that you prepared for a 2-disc 異空 -IZORA- album but ultimately didn’t release, weren’t there?
I: Those aren’t in here this time. Although, there was a song entitled スブロサ SUBROSA at the time when we were working on the 異空 -IZORA- album.
――Eh!
I: I think about half of the lyrics are the same as what it is now? But the music is completely different. It used to feature more of the typical band sound. Since 異空 -IZORA- was to be a 1-disc album, that song was removed from the demo. Sakurai-san did say, “I wanted スブロサ SUBROSA in too, though.” But I think it sounds cooler the way it is now.
――SUBROSA, the album name means “in secret” or “ in private” in English. In Latin, it means “in secret, under (a) rose” (薔薇の下で内密に / bara no shita de naimitsu ni) which is also tied to the name of this year end’s Budokan show, Naisho no Bara no Shita (ナイショの薔薇の下)
I: But I’ve had this idea even before now. I wanted to incorporate this word [into our work] somehow and I’ve been waiting [for a chance]. This was then brought out during 異空 -IZORA-’s time, although this word was only used as a lyric.
――Imai-san and Hoshino-san have always had the intention of recording your vocals, but did you consider the possibility of having guest vocalists or using past voice tracks?
I: We did last year’s Budokan show with Sakurai-san’s voice tracks, didn’t we? I think that was something we absolutely had to do. But only on that occasion, and that’s it. After that, it’ll be the four of us making music with myself and Hide as vocalists. While experimenting, we were also looking for the best style we could work in. At the very least, having a guest vocalist on our albums is probably not going to happen in future, I think.
――How’s Hoshino-san’s voice?
I: It’s that Hide melody (lol).
――Well, of course (lol). But I never expected him to have such potential as a vocalist.
I: ……Ah, really? You’ve never heard Hide sing?
――Nope.
I: I knew what he sounded like to begin with, though. Because Hide always sings the scratch vocal tracks on his demos. I see, so everyone had never heard him sing until now (lol).
――(Lol) So I assume that he’s fine if he uses the same voice as he does for singing on the demo tapes.
I: Or rather, it’s less about whether he’s fine or not, and more that, since he said himself that he wanted to sing then that’s enough, isn’t it?
――So it’s the intent that counts?
I: Mm. I believe (Hide) said that he wanted to do it.
――Also, you mentioned that lyrics naturally came to you, so I can’t help but feel like the emotions towards the person who is gone and the feelings towards those who are trying to accept that absence are motifs [in the lyrics]. For example, like Muyuubyou SLEEP WALK……
I: This one’s [about] a world of quantum mechanics.
――Qu-quantum mechanics?
I: Mm. Stuff like Schrödinger’s cat (Note: A thought experiment by a physicist which states that if a cat is put in a closed box with a fixed probability of poisonous gas emitted, it may be considered to be simultaneously both alive and dead for a period of time until the box is opened. In other words, this cat can physically be in two states at the same time: alive and dead, showing the difference between the microscopic and macroscopic perspectives). And how you can go to all sorts of places if you went to the quantum sea (量子の海)¹. Even into dreams. I imagine that’s a thing.
――But…… even if you didn’t write the lyrics with that intention, a lot of people are led to that assumption, aren’t they?
I: Well, I suppose. Then, it’s fine, isn’t it?
――But you’re saying that you weren’t set on a theme.
I: Mm. It appeared on its own. So I wrote it. There’s probably a lot which are like that in this album. But I’ll say it over and over again, there was no conscious effort to write with this theme.
――On the contrary, you could say that it still comes out [despite the fact].
I: I think so, yes.
――This is only an example, but when you work on your next album, you’ll probably come up with something that doesn’t give off that sense of an undercurrent of “Sakurai Atsushi’s absence” unlike in this album, right?
I: That’s for sure. Personally, I’m looking forward to it. Even this time around, there are no more restrictions on not only the lyrics but also the music, so it got really interesting. But, still…… I think there’s more we can do.
――Do you get the feeling that there are certain songs you’ll never be able to play again?
I: Hmm…… This time, not particularly, I think. Instead, it’s more fun thinking about what we can do with this current BUCK-TICK and making it happen.
――Since you made Raijin Fuujin – Resonance the single, did you make a conscious decision to sing in unison?
I: In the beginning, not really. Muyuubyou~ carries some impact too so we were saying that it could be a single too. But [we agreed that] the twin vocals where I come in first and Hide comes in next probably makes it easy for everyone to grasp that this is a new start.
――Zetsubou to Iu Na no Kimi e and Pushukee -PSYCHE- had lyrics written by Imai-san while the music was composed by Hoshino-san. Why is that?
I: Because Hide asked (lol). But for these, the intention was to write about humanity in a vague and general way. They’re not about Sakurai-san, neither are they about any particular person. He just wanted strong lyrics. Hide said, “Make it tug at the heartstrings.” But for me, I think focusing on strong feelings works better than reminiscing.
――In Zetsubou to Iu Na no Kimi e, there’s a line that goes “that’s what we call hope” (それを希望と呼ぶ) where one could say that “hope” (希望) is interchangeable with “light” (光), and this gives me the impression that this is what Imai-san always looks towards.
I: At first, “future” (未来) was written instead. Because I didn’t quite like using the typical “hope” versus “despair” pairing. But at the very end, I decided it’d be better making things easy to understand. Also, the feeling of the words coming together. That’s the only part I couldn’t decide on until the end.
I wanted to try and see what would happen if we did something different
Bearing everyone’s feelings, not wanting the band to disappear
It’s less of that and more of experimentation. I wanted to try